Canadian artist Dave Cooper’s latest comic book collection, Bent, is stuffed to the breaking point with surreal, sexual grotesques and caricatures. Which is probably why Hollywood’s own resident king of magical horror Guillermo Del Toro wrote the book’s glowing introduction (and, like some of the city’s other creative talents, snapped up Cooper’s work for his own personal collection).

“Dave’s paintings are technically irreproachable and meticulously planned,” Del Toro writes in his intro to Bent. “His compositions and use of color hand-deliver the purpose and direction of each piece, finding harmony or jarring contrast, and conspiring to disturb and arouse both the artist and the audience.”

It’s a suitable pairing, given Del Toro’s ascendancy in pop-cult sci-fi, horror and grotesquerie, but Cooper needs little introduction. From pounding out indie comics like Puke & Explode and the Harvey- and Ignatz-winning Weasel to contributing work for Futurama, he’s been freaking out people for more than two decades.

Bent, out Oct. 27 from indie comics powerhouse Fantagraphics, collates Cooper’s nightmarish nudes and bizarro dreamscapes from recent solo gallery shows in New York and Los Angeles, just in time for Halloween. Cooper’s Bent-signing tour commences Thursday in Los Angeles and wraps Oct. 10 in Portland, Oregon.